G is for a Garden: Hotel Bougainvilla, a splendid oasis

A magnificent garden surrounds our Hotel,

A day resting up after our birding extravaganza in Costa Rica. We are back where we started, San Jose. Hotel Bougainvilla is special because of its gardens, immaculate and beautifully laid out, and we have had a gentle day enjoying it's bounty.

We leave tomorrow to make our way to Hawaii and another adventure.

Floral glory

My favourite - lady's slipper creating a floral pagoda.

Simple beauty.

C is for Chlorospingus: what's in a name

This Sooty-capped Chlorospingus is an endemic to Costa Rica and western Panama. This species inhabits mossy forests at elevations between 1600 and 2100m and sometimes ventures into cleared areas.

Each time I say the word Chlorospingus it makes me giggle, its rounded and sounds wonderfully goofy in my mouth. So some sightings stick because of a name!

In the parking lot at Hotel Savegre, high up in the mountains, this little bird did venture out into the open and was obsessed with the car mirror. Fred was able to capture these super images. So much easier than photography in the forest.

F is for Friends: travelling Costa Rica with Bernie and Martie

Costa Rica moments.

This year of travel is about celebrating all that I enjoy and love. It is also a birthday milestone for Martie and me.

How wonderful to mark the occasion by choosing to travel and bird here in Costa Rica.

Ten days of frenetic birding, quiet moments at a hide, floating down a mangrove swamp, long walks through dense tropical forests, tramping, finding good food and beers for Bernie, laughter, exhaustion and excitement, 'leaking' skin, traffic and peace, learning about a new country, meeting new people.... all in the company of special friends.

Thank you Bernie and Martie.

P is for Pacific Ocean: a sunset

It was only two months ago that we were on the balcony with Guy and Inel at their beach house in Killcare, north of Sydney, watching the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean.

And here we are in Garabiti, Costa Rica, this time taking in a sunset over this same vast ocean. Remarkable.

Fred took the opportunity to capture the moment, the fishing boat and the wood storks feeding in the surf.

T is for Tanagers: keeping us company

Blue-gray Tanager

Each day the tanagers keep us company, whether in the forests, or in the gardens, they are a constant pleasure.

Some muted like the Palm Tanager, others fine pastel colours like the Blue-gray Tanager, and then the boldly patterned, like the Speckled Tanager and richly coloured conspicuous Tanagers, like the male Passernini with his bright red and black.

Palm Tanagers

I is for Iridescence: Costa Rica's avian jewels

Volcano Hummingbird, male Talamanca race.

We would have been lost without the hummingbird feeders!

White-throated Mountain-gem

Restaurants, hotels, lodges and even private homes all hang custom-made plastic feeders filled with
sugar water for the 'hummers'. The coming and going can be frantic, especially with Johan Fernandez calling all the different species, whether a male or a female. And as small as these birds are they have these long-winded and even double-barrelled names - like Purple-throated Mountain-Gem! Its hard enough to see them, never mind remember the naming convention.

Nor are they all called Hummingbirds, I saw - Sicklebills, Sabrewings, Hermits, Brilliants, Jacobins, Woodnymphs, Emeralds, Goldentails, Plumeleteers, Mangos, Violetears, Starthroats, Mountain-gems, Thorntails, Woodstars... in total 34 of these avian jewels made it onto my bird list and they are a highlight each time they zip into view with their iridescent and varied colours.

White-necked Jacobin at the feeder.

Joy of flashing colour!

F is for Feeders: the pleasure of watching the comings and goings

Large-footed Finch enjoying a grain of rice.

The Costa Ricans are as generous with food for the birds as they were with food for us on this trip. Feeders were piled high with rice, pawpaws and bananas. Wherever we stopped we would pop past these homemade wooden feeders, rustic and charming, to see which birds were enjoying the spoils.

Life at these feeders was such a pleasure to watch. It gave me close up views of birds that can be tricky to see properly when flitting around the canopy.

From top left: Clay-colored Thrush, Flame-colored Tanager, Buff-throated Saltator, Speckled Tanager and female Cherrie's Tanager

Even the Red Squirrel loved finding a piece of banana at the feeder.

A is for Altitude: finding the Volcano Junco

The endemic Volcano Junco.

We have bounced around Costa Rica and have birded in many different habitats.
The most unique was an afternoon drive high into the Talamancus Mountains to find the highly sought after endemic, the Volcano Junco, living at these high elevations. We were over 3400m and well above the treeline!
It was clouded over with poor visibility as we approached.
A few birds came into view very quickly and we had our Junco in the bag, a sparrow like bird with yellow eyes and a pink bill that glared at us rather sinisterly!

M is for Motmot: an early morning pop of colour

Blue-crowned Motmot

The early wake-up call for the first birding of the day is always the best for me.

I am rested, full of anticipation and just love the fresh air.

The forests are alive with calls but at the same time they are still at rest. The light is muted and when my binocs find a bird, the colours just pop. Like the intense blue ring that separates the black crown and sides of the head of a Blue-crowned Motmot.

S is for Scarlet Macaws: Carara National Park

High up in a huge tree in the Carara National Park, Johan Fernandez found us 3 Scarlet Macaws, quizzically watching the world go by, Spider Monkeys and us humans on the metal bridge taking photos.

These were taken by Johan using my iPhone through his Swarovski scope. Remarkable sighting to add to a list of remarkable birding adventures here in Costa Rica.

S is for Sloth: and it has three toes.

Just look at me!

Sunday afternoon traffic on the Pacific Coastal road, a car full of travel weary friends, muggy and hot weather, watching Costa Ricans at leisure, then a charge of excitement, hazard lights on, brakes on, Johan has seen a sloth!

And there it was, the three-toed sloth, with its three toes in fine view. A ball hanging in a tree. A strange and wonderful creature to add to our evening checklist and I am so pleased.

P is for Pura Vida: law of the land for Ticos.

Great Green Macaws seen from a distance. Thanks to Bernie Krone for the photo.

Pura Vida is Spanish for good life. Johan explained how this sentiment drives life here in Costa Rica, it is the law of the land. The expression is used in many forms, as a greeting to a synonym for excellent.
Life is wonderful, enjoy it. This was how I felt when I saw my first Great Green Macaws as they flew into sight on their way to their roosting trees.
Pura Vida - damn right!

Q is for Quetzal: a Resplendent Trogon indeed

Magnificent tropical oaks, with a female Resplendent Quetzal

Our stay for the last few days has been at the Savergre Hotel in the Province of San Jose. This high altitude region is above 2200m and the forests are lush and home to magnificent tropical oaks, some over 700 years old.

These forests are home to the brilliant Resplendent Quetzal, a bird deified by the Mayans and arguably the most beautiful  bird in the Central Americas. 

A bird of legends and art. 

And our target bird!

Found, admired, photographed.

A male in all his glory.

In the 1940s, Dr. Alexander Skutch wrote a life history of the Quetzal, based on long years of careful observation. He describes the Quetzal as follows:

The male is a supremely lovely bird; the most beautiful, all things considered, that I have ever seen. He owes his beauty to the intensity and arresting contrast of his coloration, the resplendent sheen and glitter of his plumage, the elegance of his ornamentation; the symmetry of his form, and the noble dignity of his carriage. His whole head and upper plumage, foreneck. and chest are an intense glittering green. His lower breast, belly, and under tail coverts are of the richest crimson. 

The dark, central feathers of the tail are entirely concealed by the greatly elongated upper tail coverts, which are golden green with blue or violent iridescence, and have loose, soft barbs. The two median and longest of these coverts are longer than the entire body of the bird, and extend far beyond the tip of the tail, which is of normal length. Loose and slender, they cross each other above the end of the tail, and thence diverging gradually, form a long, gracefully curving train which hangs below the bird while he perches upright on a branch and ripple gaily behind him as he flies. The outer tail feathers are pure white and contrast with the crimson belly as he flies overhead. To complete the splendor of his attire, reflections of blue and violent play over the glittering metallic plumage of back and head, when viewed in favourable light.